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2012 Events and Seminars
Matt Schaff Receives Goldwater Scholarship!
As reported in the Pitt Chronicle, April 2, 2012, Matthew A. B. Schaff, a junior majoring in neuroscience and economics, is one of three University of Pittsburgh Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences' students to be named a 2012 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship winner for his exceptional independent research in the natural sciences. The students were nominated for the scholarships through the auspices of Pitt’s University Honors College.
Patricia White writes, "Schaff, a Pitt Honors Scholar from Strafford, Pa., is an undergraduate researcher in Pitt’s Neuropsychopharmacology of Nicotine Addiction Laboratory. He studies the reinforcement-enhancing effects of nicotine on rats through operant conditioning techniques under the direction of Alan Sved, a professor and chair in Pitt’s Department of Neuroscience, and Eric Donny, a professor in Pitt’s Department of Psychology.
Schaff also spent two summers conducting research at the University of Pennsylvania’s Neuropsychiatry Laboratory. An intern/contractor at The Foundation for Biomedical Research in Washington, D.C., Schaff inaugurated the “Research Outreach Initiative,” which encourages scientists to perform K-12 outreach. He is a service volunteer in the Pitt Department of Biological Sciences and Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s Mobile Science Lab Program. Schaff’s honors include the Center for Neuroscience Summer Undergraduate Fellowship and the University Honors College Fall Research Fellowship. He serves as president of the Pitt Neuroscience Club.
Schaff plans to earn a PhD in neuroscience and to conduct research on the causes of drug abuse, directing the focus of his future research toward understanding the way the brain processes and responds to rewarding stimuli, particularly commonly abused stimulants such as nicotine and cocaine. He hopes to teach at the university level".
Department of Neuroscience Seminar:
Ph.D. Dissertation Defense:
April 9, 2012
Monday, 1:00 p.m.
Sonya B. Giridhar
Center for Neuroscience
Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences/Neuroscience
Seminar Title: Odors, Timescales, and Inhibition: Mechanisms and Function of Long-Latency Interneuron Recruitment in the Olfactory Bulb
Location: 2nd Floor Auditorium, Learning Research Development Center
Sponsor: Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Neuroscience
Department of Neuroscience Seminar:
April 10, 2012
Tuesday, 2:00 p.m.
Mark A. Stopfer, Ph.D.
Senior Principal Investigator, NIH NICHD-DNP
National Institutes of Health
Unit on Sensory Coding and Neural Ensembles
Seminar Title: Roles of Olfactory Receptor Neurons in Establishing Neural Codes for Odors
Location: 2nd Floor Auditorium, Learning Research Development Center
Sponsor: Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Neuroscience
Translational Neuroscience Program and Department of Psychiatry Seminar:
January 26, 2012
Thursday, Noon - 1:00 pm
David Moorman, Ph.D.
Medical University of South Carolina
Seminar Title: Characterizing the Neural Circuitry Underlying Motivated Decision-Making and its Collapse in Addiction
Location: 16th floor Conference Room - 1695 BST
Department of Neuroscience Seminar:
January 23, 2012
Monday, 9:30 am
Oliver Marcus Schluter, Ph.D.
Molecular Neurobiology, European Neuroscience Institute
Gottingen, Germany
Seminar Title: A Molecular Basis for Signaling Specificity in Long-Term Synaptic Plasticity
Location: A219B Langley Hall
Sponsor: Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Neuroscience
Pitt News Release: January 18, 2012
Teenagers' Brains Make Them More Susceptible to Addiction, Depression Than Adults
As published by Drs. Bita Moghaddam and David Sturman in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science research
"compared the brain activity of adolescents and adults in rats involved in a task in which they anticipated a reward". The study found "that not only is reward expectancy processed differently in an adolescent brain, but also it can affect brain regions directly responsible for decision-making and action selection".
Department of Neuroscience Seminar:
January 18, 2012
Wednesday, 9:30 am
Ju Young Kim, Ph.D.
Department of Neurology, Institute for Cell Engineering
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Seminar Title: Regulation of Neural Development in Dentate Neurons by Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1)
Location: A219B Langley Hall
Sponsor: Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Neuroscience

As reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today Dr. Edward Stricker describes family influences on his life, his passion for education, his academic and research years and his plans to address the University community of the state of the Honors College.
Department of Neuroscience Seminar
January 9, 2012
Monday, 9:30 am
Alexei Morozov, Ph.D.
Investigator
National Institute of Mental Health
Bethesda, MD
Seminar Title: Functional analysis of neural circuitry of emotions
Location: A219B Langley Hall
Sponsor: Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Neuroscience

Anthony Grace, Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience, was recently honored as a Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his contributions to cellular and systems studies of the brain’s dopamine system as it relates to understanding the mechanisms of schizophrenia.
Upcoming Seminars and Events
Department of Neuroscience Seminar:
Ph.D. Dissertation Defense:
April 9, 2012
Monday, 1:00 p.m.
Sonya B. Giridhar
Center for Neuroscience
Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Science/Neuroscience
Seminar Title: Odors, Timescales, and Inhibition: Mechanisms and Function of Long-Latency Interneuron Recruitment in the Olfactory Bulb
Location: 2nd Floor Auditorium, Learning Research Development Center
Sponsor: Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Neuroscience
Department of Neuroscience Seminar:
April 10, 2012
Tuesday, 2:00 p.m.
Mark A. Stopfer, Ph.D.
Senior Principal Investigator, NIH NICHD-DNP
National Institutes of Health
Unit on Sensory Coding and Neural Ensembles
Seminar Title: Roles of olfactory receptor neurons in establishing neural codes for odors
Location: 2nd Floor Auditorium, Learning Research Development Center
Sponsor: Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Neuroscience
Recent Faculty Publications
Card, JP, Kobiler O, Ludmir, EB, Desai, V, Sved AF, Enquist, LW., A Dual Infection Pseudorabies Virus Conditional
Reporter Approach to Identify Projections to
Collateralized Neurons in Complex Neural Circuits.,
PLoS One. 2011;6(6):e21141. Epub 2011 Jun 16.
Card JP, Kobiler O, McCambridge J, Ebdlahad S, Shan Z, Raizada MK, Sved AF, Enquist LW., Microdissection of neural networks by conditional reporter expression from a Brainbow herpesvirus., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Feb 3. [Epub ahead of print], PMID: 21292985 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Belujon P, Lodge DJ, Grace AA., Aberrant striatal plasticity is specifically associated with dyskinesia following levodopa treatment., Mov Disord. 2010 Aug 15;25(11):1568-76.PMID: 20623773 [PubMed - in process]
Bourassa EA, Fang X, Li X, Sved AF, Speth RC., AT(1) angiotensin II receptor and novel non-AT(1), non-AT(2) angiotensin II/III binding site in brainstem cardiovascular regulatory centers of the spontaneously hypertensive rat., Brain Res. 2010 Nov 4;1359:98-106. Epub 2010 Aug 31.PMID: 20807518 [PubMed - in process]
Card JP, Lois J, Sved AF., Distribution and phenotype of Phox2a-containing neurons in the adult sprague-dawley rat., J Comp Neurol. 2010 Jun 15;518(12):2202-20.PMID: 20437524 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Cosgrove KE, Meriney SD, Barrionuevo G., High affinity group III mGluRs regulate mossy fiber input to CA3 interneurons., Hippocampus. 2010 Sep 7. [Epub ahead of print]PMID: 20824730 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Curanović D, Lyman MG, Bou-Abboud C, Card JP, Enquist LW., Repair of the UL21 locus in pseudorabies virus Bartha enhances the kinetics of retrograde, transneuronal infection in vitro and in vivo., J Virol. 2009 Feb;83(3):1173-83. Epub 2008 Nov 19.PMID: 19019952 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Dunn CA, Hall NJ, Colby CL., Spatial updating in monkey superior colliculus in the absence of the forebrain commissures: dissociation between superficial and intermediate layers., J Neurophysiol. 2010 Sep;104(3):1267-85. Epub 2010 Jul 7.PMID: 20610793 [PubMed - in process]
Dunn CA, Colby CL., Representation of the Ipsilateral Visual Field by Neurons in the Macaque Lateral Intraparietal Cortex Depends on the Forebrain Commissures., J Neurophysiol. 2010 Aug 18. [Epub ahead of print]PMID: 20660427 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Eggan SM, Melchitzky DS, Sesack SR, Fish KN, Lewis DA., Relationship of cannabinoid CB1 receptor and cholecystokinin immunoreactivity in monkey dorsolateral prefrontal cortex., Neuroscience. 2010 Sep 15;169(4):1651-61. Epub 2010 Jun 11.PMID: 20542094 [PubMed - in process]
Ferrell RE, Baty CJ, Kimak MA, Karlsson JM, Lawrence EC, Franke-Snyder M, Meriney SD, Feingold E, Finegold DN., GJC2 missense mutations cause human lymphedema., Am J Hum Genet. 2010 Jun 11;86(6):943-8. Epub 2010 May 27.PMID: 20537300 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Galván EJ, Cosgrove KE, Mauna JC, Card JP, Thiels E, Meriney SD, Barrionuevo G., Critical involvement of postsynaptic protein kinase activation in long-term potentiation at hippocampal mossy fiber synapses on CA3 interneurons., J Neurosci. 2010 Feb 24;30(8):2844-55.PMID: 20181582 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Gielen M, Siegler Retchless B, Mony L, Johnson JW, Paoletti P., Mechanism of differential control of NMDA receptor activity by NR2 subunits, Nature. 2009 Jun 4;459(7247):703-7. Epub 2009 Apr 29.PMID: 19404260 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Holmstrand EC, Asafu-Adjei J, Sampson AR, Blakely RD, Sesack SR., Ultrastructural localization of high-affinity choline transporter in the rat anteroventral thalamus and ventral tegmental area: differences in axon morphology and transporter distribution., J Comp Neurol. 2010 Jun 1;518(11):1908-24.PMID: 20394050 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Koehnle TJ, Rinaman L., Early experience alters limbic forebrain Fos responses to a stressful interoceptive stimulus in young adult rats., Physiol Behav. 2010 May 11;100(2):105-15. Epub 2010 Feb 14.PMID: 20159026 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Kotermanski SE, Wood JT, Johnson JW., Memantine binding to a superficial site on NMDA receptors contributes to partial trapping., J Physiol. 2009 Oct 1;587(Pt 19):4589-604. Epub 2009 Aug 17.PMID: 19687120 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Lodge DJ, Grace AA., Developmental pathology, dopamine, stress and schizophrenia., Int J Dev Neurosci. 2010 Aug 19. [Epub ahead of print]PMID: 20727962 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
McCarron DA, Drüeke TB, Stricker EM., Science trumps politics: urinary sodium data challenge US dietary sodium guideline., Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Oct 6. [Epub ahead of print] No abstract available. PMID: 20926523 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher
Moghaddam B., Dopamine in the thalamus: a hotbed for psychosis?, Biol Psychiatry. 2010 Jul 1;68(1):3-4. No abstract available. PMID: 20609835 [PubMed - in process]
Pehrson AL, Moghaddam B.; Impact of metabotropic glutamate 2/3 receptor stimulation on activated dopamine release and locomotion., Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2010 Sep;211(4):443-55. Epub 2010 Jun 29.PMID: 20585759 [PubMed - in process]
Rinaman L., Ascending projections from the caudal visceral nucleus of the solitary tract to brain regions involved in food intake and energy expenditure., Brain Res. 2010 Sep 2;1350:18-34. Epub 2010 Mar 27.PMID: 20353764 [PubMed - in process]
Stocker SD, Madden CJ, Sved AF., Excess dietary salt intake alters the excitability of central sympathetic networks., Physiol Behav. 2010 Jul 14;100(5):519-24. Epub 2010 May 1. Review.PMID: 20434471 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]